Smelly Cat

Soooooo.....Last end of summer/beginning of fall, The Mister had left the car outside and the window's down overnight.  Not the end of the world since we live in the middle of nowhere. We did wake up to a car FULL of flies. 

No biggie.

However, over the next week or so I started feeling something move inside the drivers side seat.  At first it really freaked me out.  As the weeks went on, I worried I might just be going crazy.  We all know it's bound to happen, I just didn't realize it would happen so soon.  I sheepishly asked the Mister one night if he ever felt it too.  He confirmed I was going crazy.  

Then, one night, we were driving back from the train station after picking Rhiannon up.  The Mister was driving.  All of a sudden he sat straight up and said something along the lines of 

"What in the hell was that?"  

And then I knew. 

I was NOT crazy.  

There was just a mouse who lived inside our drivers car seat back. 

If you think about it, it was a very smart move by the mouse.  The kids constantly kept him fed, there were no predators after him and he was always warm.  

I didn't mind sharing with him as long as I didn't have to see him.

On Sunday we went to the Pride Parade.  My car sat in the sun all day.  When we got back to it, there was definitely a smell.  A dead, decaying smell.  My sister and I both commented on how disgusting it was and how it was probably a rat in the alley or maybe some food the girls threw on the floor and I missed.

I detailed the car.

It wasn't food.

It's our mousy friend.  

He died.  Inside our car seat.

Although I have been telling him for almost a year that we need another car, The Mister has been putting it off saying 

"It isn't  necessary yet, we can still wait, we might not need two cars, yada yada yada....."  

I'm going to have to thank our little mouse friend.  
He has changed my husbands mind.

The Mister is going car shopping today.

Happy Wednesday!

jj

Play It Again

The big girl is about to go away for a couple of weeks.

To say she will be missed is an understatement.

Enjoying a summer rain storm.

Every time she hears this song on the radio the volume goes up a few octaves.

So, obviously, this is for her.

Happy Wednesday!

Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key

Sometimes I feel like my husband doesn't "get" me at all.

Like, the other day, when I asked him to go to the store to pick up some bread and he returns with this....

Now, I am going to assume you  are an adult that is capable of making your own choices so I am not going to judge you if you enjoy eating white bread.  

However, The Mister should know better.  
(It's only been 7 years now!)  

Never in my whole life have I bought white bread.  Not even when I was starving to death and could barely afford food did I buy the white bread! It's so bad for you and it tastes so gross.  

As someone who used to make homemade bread with me every week, he, of all people, should know better.

My little sister, who is staying with us for the summer, was also confused by his purchase.  We concluded that he must have fallen a victim to marketing......it is called "Mother's" after all.

In other "you're an awesome parent" news, I did this to my baby. 

I swear I had good intentions.  I was JUST TALKING about how you should always spend money on haircuts, because, obviously.  

But she wanted her bangs trimmed.  So I was just going to trim them a little and at the very last second she jerked her head.  When I asked her why she did it she said it was because she was afraid I was going to "cut her face off."  

Fair enough.

If I thought someone was going to cut my face off I would probably jerk my head too.  

She thinks the end result is FABULOUS!  

Thank god she's little.

Happy Wednesday!

And We Danced / Rhiannon is 14!

Today is Rhiannon's birthday!

She is the big 1-4!

Last Thursday, two of her friends and I pulled off an epic surprise party.  I told them to take care of the guest list and  I would take care of the rest.  We prayed for great weather, (and it came!) I bought a ton of food, sodas, a pinata - if you ever been to any of her childhood parties you will get why - and of course an ice cream cake.  Because my crazy child hates cake.

  The weather cooperating was especially helpful because those gals delivered on that guest list, about 40 teenagers!  

Yikes!

A few days before the party I had set up a hair appointment for Rhiannon that was to start right after school.  On our way there I told her The Mister was going to take us to the city for a fancy dinner (something we try to do often).  

She's grown so much this year. I told her we were just going to run to the store to get her a nice outfit and shoes.  I made sure to bring my make up along so she could be completely ready before we got home, because, you know, we were in SUCH a HURRY!  

(I even dressed up to the part, sporting a fancy dress and heels.)

She had NO CLUE I was actually being a big, fat liar.  

Since we were leaving "as soon as we got back" she was dressed up with her make up and hair all done up cute.  

It was fabulous.  She looked fabulous!

She was so surprised when she opened the garage door.  She screamed in terror and looked at me with an expression I will never forget.  

Since today is Rhiannon's official birthday I am dedicating this song to her, and since it is her fourteenth birthday here are fourteen reasons why!

I'm adding where my comments are directed at in the song.

I love you, my most favorite sweetheart!

 

1. You probably don't remember, but we used to dance around the house to this song together.  Like, a lot.
2. 0:01  This looks like a town you would love to end up living in. 
3. 0:06  Look!  It's The Mister's dream car!  
4. 0:32  I can see a Drive-In Theater experience complete with a terrible zombie movie being a great night out for you.  
5. 0:37  Um....That man in the watermelon shirt!  Purely  awesome! I'm going to make us matching ones...and a Melodica, because YES.
6. 1:10  That lady in the black dress dances JUST LIKE YOUR MOM! (She must be cool.)
7. 1:20   The band dances like your mom, too.  See?  Proof your mom is cool.....
8. 1:54    Unintentionally locking your friends in the trunk == another scenario I can see you getting yourself into.  Lucky for you white lightening has that handy glow-in-the-dark trunk release pull!  
9. 2:47    Old man Hawk Harrelson look-a-like has FAILED at his rescue mission!  
10. 3:15    That love between the concession stand boy and the girl in the yellow shirt.  Get ready for lots of awkward moments like that!  Lol.  Yay teenage experiences!  
11.  3:24    Everyone is dancing like your mom now! 
12. 3:37    Stereotypical motorcycle gang scaring a nerdy boy. 
13. 3:46     Kicking things usually (wont) solve your problems.  Unless your friends are stuck in the trunk, that is.
14. 3:53     The zombie party has officially turned into a dance party.  
15. 
    

(For your birthday, obviously!) 

Happy Wednesday 

and 

Happy Birthday Rhiannon!

Cotton

Monday marked The Mister and I's second wedding anniversary.  

2nd year cotton gift = best hammock ever!
Also, it was REALLY bright out that day!

My mother was down to help watch the kids over the weekend.  She and I both agreed that it feels like our marriage has been a lot longer then two years.  

Our little tree climber helped us out a lot in hanging the hammock up!

The Mister and I had a nice little city-getaway together, but we both ended up wanting to cut it a little short so we could enjoy some time with both of our children, which is a rarity in our life.  

I have been adamant on following the "traditional" wedding gift guide.  I think it is a fun way to stick in a certain genre of  a gift.  

The Mister says it's silly, (especially since year 14 is ivory which is obviously illegal and terribly immoral,) however I think he can use his imagination on that year to bend the rules a bit!

I had some hand made bag boards made for The Mister.
If you are in the market for an awesome gift, to you or someone else, please consider contacting
The Unemployment Project
on etsy or facebook.  It was a painless experience with beautiful results.  And if you are looking for a great 2nd anniversary gift, the actual bags are cotton, so it all works!

It is my hope that The Mister and I can continue to be the best example for what our children should strive for in their own personal relationships, when that time comes.

We totally kicked his ass in best out of three.

I hope my girls will find a person who compliments their personalities and respects them as a whole.  

I want them to only give their time to someone who loves them, protects them and holds them dear.  I want them to know that their partner will not disrespect, or even more let anyone else disrespect them in any way. 

I hope they know their self worth enough to only want a person who will hold them in the highest regard. 

Well Mister, I made you promise me 50 good years, so here's to 48 more.  I love you, you crazy old man, you! 

The Mister and I's wedding song

Happy Wednesday!

Green Grass of Tunnel

I haven't written in a while.  There is a good reason for that.  

I think I am ready to jump back on the horse.

Happy Wednesday!

Whatever Happened To Soy Bomb?

Who the hell wants to live in Arizona anyway?

l

Birdhouse In Your Soul

Right now it is 39 degrees here.  

Clara is working on her riding skills.
Buehrle is very concerned.

It feels like a heat wave. 

Today Clara and I have already cleaned the garage (which the Mister is never allowed to use again), shoveled the drive, worked on her bicycle riding skills and took a 5 mile bike ride around our little town.  

"I did it!  I did it!  I did it!"
Buehrle is still unsure.

And I did all of this while wearing capri pants!

Because sometimes, you just have to attack the damn snow, already.

It is amazing what a little bit of fresh air and Vitamin D can do for your soul.

Happy Humpday!

Ghosts n' stuff

I forgot today was Wednesday.

I was to busy doing things like getting my car stuck in a giant snow drift in my driveway, and then breaking my shovel while trying to get it unstuck therefore making my four year old miss school and cry.

Then I spent three hours shoveling the rest of my driveway, as clean as I could get it because I found our stupid snow blower didn't have any gas.  

Now I am almost thawed and would love to take the worlds hottest shower, but instead have to go to get an x-ray to make sure my arm isn't broken from the spill I took on some black ice.

Remember how I said winter doesn't bother me?

Yeah, well winter can officially suck it
For real. 

deadmau5 feat. Rob Swire "Ghosts N Stuff" by ultrarecords

Happy freaking humpday

Life In Mono

In her life, Rhiannon had only experienced two actual snow days.  

Remember when we had the blizzard that left over 900 cars stuck and stranded on Lakeshore Drive?

Those were her snow days.
  
She hated how everyone down south got out of school for dusting's while she had to walk through a foot of snow for seven whole blocks!

Now this year, she has already missed 5 days for extreme cold.  If this continues to be the norm I will have the Mister convinced to move to the northwest in no time.  You all can come visit us in the Redwoods when it gets to cold here in Chicago.

I'll put on a pot of coffee.  

We can watch the whales migrate together.

(*Eyes close, daydreaming starts....NOW!)

Happy Wednesday!

When The Roses Bloom Again

Does anybody else feel like it's been snowing for days on end?

I could use a healthy dose of baseball right now with a heaping side of vitamin D.

And maybe some nachos.  
And peanuts.  
And an Old Style.  
And two hot dogs. 
(Chicago style.)

Happy Wednesday!

Here's Looking At You, Kid

Here's Looking At You, Kid - The Gaslight Anthem by Runesword_14

Happy Wednesday

Wildflowers

Last year while we were in San Francisco I went to the almighty Zoltar and had my fortune read.

It was probably the most accurate fortune of my life.

"A wise old owl sat on a oak

The more he sat the less he spoke

the less he spoke, the more he heard

Why can't you be like that wise old bird?"

"Yes my friend your greatest fault is that you talk to much.  Learn to keep a secret.  However your other golden qualities make up for your talkativeness.  Your anxiety to help others, and your consideration of other peoples wishes has earned you many friends."

Although I don't have a problem keeping secrets, I do talk to much.  I need to start biting my tongue, I think.  That is what I am going to work on this year.  

Not telling people exactly what I think or feel, and perhaps stop trying to help others and help myself for a change.

We'll see how this goes.

This is the song my dad and I danced to at my wedding.  

I know its about Tom Petty's ex-wife, but I take a completely different meaning from this.

Happy Humpday

(And thank god snowmageddon 2014 is OVER!) 

And We Danced

Happy New Years!!!!!!!

Please please please be safe out there tonight!

We will be enjoying our fireplace, good friends company, some pony gambling, a seafood boil, chicken wings, strawberry cheesecake. lots of champagne and probably a lot of really bad dancing as well.

I can't think of anywhere else I would want to be.

 

Happy Last Day of 2013!

A Fairytale of New York

Here is a prime example of why The Mister isn't allowed to buy presents.

This is almost as tall as me.

Ridiculous!
(We have named it the 1% Mansion.)

The Pogues - A Fairytale Of New York by vince_suelze

Merry Christmas!!!

Do I Wanna Know?

We only just recently went to get our Christmas tree and such.  

(One thing that is definitely different from our old city apartments to this new suburban life is the size of our ceilings.  Our old tree only fits in the vaulted sun room.)

On our way to the store we thought we would go to the local nursery instead of Home Depot like originally planned.  We got there and found that Christmas had thrown up in the nursery. We ended up staying longer than The Mister or I, (or Clara for that matter) would of liked.

We finally (over an hour later) compromised on a tree and headed to the register.  
Upon coming to the register we heard lots and lots and lots of barking.  

Strange to hear barking in a nursery, right?  
Clara and I went to investigate.

What I saw next broke my heart in a million little pieces.

There were so many puppies.

Row upon row.

Cage upon cage.

And they all looked at you like this.

I've heard of and even seen pictures of puppy mills before, but I had never blindly walked into one.  However I seemed to be the only one it was bothering, given the ten or so other suburban women fawning over the pups.  The Mister walked up a few minutes later and instantly knew what I was feeling.  He asked if we should just return all of our items right now,

I said no feeling like the worlds biggest asshole for supporting their store and we went home.

But I just couldn't stop thinking about them.

Yesterday I went back and pretended to be interested in the puppy on the right.  

(A shar pei-beagle mix that can be yours!  For a little over $1000, that is.)
  

I played with him and asked about 500 questions about the quality of life they are given while at the store.  After about ten minutes the lady made it very obvious that she was done answering my questions, and to buy or leave.

I felt a little better about letting the puppy get out of his cage and play for a while.  

(I'm going to be honest, my hands took a beating.  I forgot how sharp itty bitty puppy teeth are!)

I guess the point of my story is next time we will be choosing Home Depot.

Oh, and thank god it's Wednesday. 

Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know? (Official Video) by domino

Femme Fatale

Yesterday all three of the girls in our house was sick, present company included.

The Mister didn't have to work, and unfortunately instead of catching up on his day off like he had planned, he instead ran around making tea, soup, fetching tissue, administering meds, etc etc.
He really is the best.

Just in case you missed this post, it has a ton of wonderful ideas for your holiday shopping, and they are all local artists!
(Support your community!)

The Velvet Underground - Femme Fatale from Hikikomori on Vimeo.

Happy Humpday!

Pocketful of Money

What a beautiful, dreary, warm and misty day we are having.  

Days like today just increase my desire to live on the northwest coast.  Nestled in between the redwoods and the ocean, watching the whales make their yearly trek all while being a short distance from a few delightful wineries really is where my heart is at.

I officially have my house purged and scrubbed.  I also have ALL of my laundry washed, folded AND put away.  

It's like a modern day miracle.  

I think I'm finally getting the hang of this whole "adult" business.  It's a good thing, too, (since I am now 31) and because last week proved that I shouldn't try and act like a 20 yr old ever again.

I just.....can't.
No.  No.  No. No. No. 

Lets re-cap.

This is Rick.  
He had a pretty amazing set up for his tailgate, including a bears ambulance and ample amounts of fireball whiskey.
His friends really liked my little sisters.

Actually the three of us made lots of friends that day.  
Let's just leave it at that.

Thankfully those are the only pictures I have of the weekend.
Tailgating/Bears game was a fun experience, but I don't think I ever want to do it again.
Youch!

We hosted another friends thanksgiving at our house.  It's something we like to do every year, and for a few reasons.  We originally started this tradition of ours because we both worked crazy shifts, him with what he does and I as a bartender.  

When I used to live in  my small town (frame of mind) I would always think it was sad when people didn't have a place to go on thanksgiving and therefore ate their dinner at a bar.  Then I quickly became that person and my view was drastically altered.

Working Thanksgiving at the bar let me experience the holiday in a different (and better) light.  Everyone who came to those thanksgiving meals were truly joyous to be there.  We were our own little community and thankful to be a part of that community.  We were happy to have other outcasts to share a meal and conversation with.  Nobody was judging us on our lifestyle choices, working habits, vices, etc.  

We would all share our meal together and tell the most inappropriate stories and jokes.

  There was (almost) never any fighting or hurt feelings.  

And, as an added bonus, I would make a hefty amount in tips.

After I quit the bar scene (hallelujah!) The Mister and I had our first family thanksgiving.  We realized that was not how we wanted to spend our holiday every year.  

Our prior years of spending it with friends in the bar had left us jaded, (or maybe just opened up our eyes,) to what our expectations of the holiday are and how it should be spent.

   Most of our friends live all over the world, but call somewhere around Chicago as their home-base.  They come back every year to visit their families.  

We all want to see each other anyway, what's more perfect of an idea than to host a giant dinner with our chosen family?

We can't think of anything and every year it just gets better.

The Mister smokes and grills the turkey every year.  I have never tasted a turkey as good as our thanksgiving birds.

At one point of the night, our entire basement was filled with adults and children, toys were thrown everywhere, children were chasing each other, screeching and laughing, adults were singing, joking, dancing and laughing.  

I could feel just how full my heart was and I could not have been more thankful then at that moment. 

Chocolate covered fruit, marshmallows and pretzel sticks.  Easiest desert I ever made.  (Tastiest, too!)

 (I didn't get to take a lot of pictures since I was in the kitchen most of the day so most of these pictures are stolen from our friends.)

My Chicago Gals. 

I'm so thankful for their acceptance into the group when I was a newbie.
These are a few of the best gal's I have ever known!
And, of course, there's Buehrle, who is desperately asking for something. 


 I bought a bunch of puzzles and games for the kids.  They liked the games, but I think the rock painting was the biggest hit.
(Figures!)

And finally, the boys after their football game.
I don't know about the rest of them but The Mister sure did complain about being sore for days after.

I hope your holidays were also spent with the people you hold dear!

Happy Humpday!

Old Love

This dog refused to get out of the middle of our leaf pile yesterday, no matter how many times I threw leaves on top of him.

(He's crazy like that.)

I heard this song in the car yesterday.

It's up there in my top favorites.

Happy Humpday!

Daylight

Rhiannon had her first cooking lesson.  

She informed me that she wanted to learn how to cook southern style food.

This really is NOT the job for me to teach, 

(this is a job for Mrs. Ritter).

However, I have a few recipes from Mrs. Ritter and that is just going to have to do.

So she made jambalaya.  

It was incredibly tasty and I am proud of how her first stab at it went. 

I learned that she needs some serious help with her knife cutting skills.  I thought for sure we were going to find a finger in our food the way she was hacking at the celery, so we worked on that a bit.

She also learned what "natural casings" mean.

She was not impressed, to say the least.

We then learned that it is NOT OKAY to have your sister "help stir" a scalding hot pot on top of a high flamed gas stove.

Like never-ever-ever.

(Especially when you have to stand on a stool to see over the pot!)

The end result was fantastic, and I am one proud Mama!

Good work, Rhiannon!

**Sorry if you are following me on instagram.  I'm a part of a 

One Day challenge where you are supposed to document the mundane everyday parts of your day.  So far I forgot the first 3 hours of the day.**  

(Lucky for you!)

ALIFE SESSIONS: NINJASONIK "DAYLIGHT" from ALIFE on Vimeo.

Happy Humpday!